![]() ![]() Manasseri turns in a gut-wrenchingly vulnerable performance as Nya, a woman on the front line of crisis. Unfortunately, they don't always drive this production. All this gives voice to the profound feelings of exasperation and foreboding anxiety that weigh down each character, whose lives have become an ongoing exercise of helplessness and futility. So too does Morisseau's own writing, where harsh realities are exposed through rich dialogue and passionate monologues infused with heightened language and distinctively expressive free-verse poetry. She tells them that not only do the words speak to the tragic brotherhood of the streets, but their structure and rhythm inform the message. The focus and fashion of this play are established early, with Nya discussing Gwendolyn Brooks' short poem "We Real Cool" (" We real cool. But Omari is in danger of expulsion and legal action after assaulting a teacher who he believes singled him out unfairly and provoked him during a class discussion about why young Black men living in poverty descend into acts of violence. Here, we find Nya (Chelsea Manasseri), a dedicated inner-city English teacher who sends her own son, Omari (Elijah Brooks), to a private boarding school financed by her ex-husband, Xavier (Erv Brown), in order to protect the young man from the fate of the students she teaches. Pipeline articulates the same sociopolitical and economic struggles of the Black community as Morisseau's other work, including Ain't Too Proud and the provocative, award-winning three-play cycle known as The Detroit Project, which includes Skeleton Crew, Paradise Blue, and Detroit '67. The title of the play refers to our country's school-to-prison pipeline, where the overzealous suspension and expulsion of underprivileged and disadvantaged public school students has led to their being unceremoniously funneled into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Clearly, she was saving the really good stuff for Pipeline – a powerful, emotionally immersive play first seen at New York City's Lincoln Center and currently onstage at Alchemy Theatre. Elijah Brooks as Omari and Chelsea Manasseri as Nya in Alchemy Theatre's Pipeline (Photo by Christopher Shea)ĭid you catch the national tour of Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations when it came through town this March? That was playwright Dominique Morisseau, who in 2017 composed the uncharacteristically thin script for this entertaining but unremarkable jukebox musical. ![]()
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